Based on the general trends of media and advertising across all formats in recent years, there was a rising concern that overall spend on television advertising could take a hard fall. Contrarily, however, the first half of 2018 has shown a number of positive trends for television’s position in the advertising industry.
Television still seems to be holding its own in the advertising industry, as advertisers continue to spend at a fairly high rate. In fact, from August 2017 to July 2018, the three product categories that spent the most collectively spent more than $20 billion advertising on television.
On top of that, there have been a number of new trends and ad formats coming up over the horizon, and with it, so have many new advertisers.
New Television Advertisers
Perhaps, the brightest number for television advertising is the number of new advertisers still entering the equation.
In the first half of 2018, more than one thousand companies ran advertisements on television for the very first time.
Among those new advertisers were a diverse group of companies, across a variety of product categories—ranging from food, to wellness products, to financial services, social media, and more.
Let’s take a look at some of the top new TV advertisers from January 2018 through June 2018:
- Purplebricks
- A2 Milk
- Hims
- Zelle
- Nectar Sleep
- Snapchat
Purplebricks has been taking the real estate industry by storm.
It is a British real estate company that was founded in 2014, and has since become a go-to for many as an online real estate brokerage.
With a slogan of, “Save yourself from commissary,” Purplebricks makes the play that users can save on brokerage fees by going straight to their services online.
Their television ads have become fairly well-known. Take the following commercial titled, “Basketball,” as an example. With over 4.6 million views on YouTube, it’s clear that this television ad has had the desired effect for Purplebricks.
From real estate industry disruptor to dairy disruptor, A2 Milk has been making noise in the food and beverage industry as the company that is reinventing milk.
With A2 Milk, there are no surprises. They are trying to bring the natural-side of dairy back to fruition, stating that they are offering real milk from real cows.
The company also states that their milk, “A1 protein-free and easier on digestion.” They’ve continued to push forward as the conscientious dairy brand, even recently ditching plastic bottles, moving instead to 100% recyclable FSC-certified paper-based cartons.
Another industry-disruptive company that advertised for the first time in the first half of 2018 was Hims, the men’s wellness and personal care company.
They provide solutions for a bevy of different men’s physical issues, including hair loss and skin care. These online solutions start at only $5. In a world of middleman-less online shopping for the masses, Hims has found their place as one of the leading men’s wellness brands.
Hims takes a very bare-bones, “straight-shooter” approach to their advertising, evident on all formats. Whereas many other companies would use the details of their products to sound sophisticated, Hims speaks more plainly to appeal to their audiences.
In this ad, instead of referring specifically to the active ingredients or scientific studies, they simply say that, “thanks to science,” losing hair, “is an option.”
Many banks have apps for users to transfer money to accounts apart of the same bank—whether it’s an individual transferring money to themselves or to another person.
Zelle, however, is a financial services company that allows for easier transferring of money across accounts from different banks.
Zelle allows for real-time money transfers. The app itself also runs through participating banking apps, and therefore caters to each individual involved in a transfer. Instead of both parties needing to have a third-party app, they can use their own banking app to transfer money in real-time.
The company also has a new-school approach to advertising, incorporating rhythm, music, and a very colorfully animated set to keep viewers engaged:
According to their own website, Nectar Sleep is “one of the world’s fastest growing sleep companies.” And, based on their television advertising efforts at this point in 2018, we have no reason to believe otherwise. Nectar Sleep certainly doesn’t hold anything back in their ads.
In the following ad, Nectar plays to the friction present in the world of politics, alluding to the fact that we could achieve world peace simply by sleeping properly:
While it may be a bit surprising that it took until 2018 to happen, it is not surprising that Snapchat is entering into the world of television advertising, as they were also among the brands to make their advertising debut in the first half of 2018.
They took a very humanized approach to their television advertising, speaking to the sometimes-controversial world of social media, and discussing why their camera is more than just a camera. Snapchat prides itself on offering users life moments that are simply delivered through a camera.
Despite having a very youthful, tech-driven user base and audience, Snapchat has begun to dip their advertising toes into the waters of television, serving as perhaps the most positive sign of things to come for advertising on television.
